


Last Words

by mystiri1



Category: Final Fantasy VII
Genre: Canonical Character Death, F/M, Possibly Unrequited Love
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-04-08
Updated: 2017-04-08
Packaged: 2018-10-16 06:08:11
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 581
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10565208
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mystiri1/pseuds/mystiri1
Summary: Cloud isn't good with people.





	

Cloud knew before he even started up the metal stairway that things weren't going well. But it still made him flinch when he rounded another level to see Jessie lying draped across several steps, bleeding and clearly in the process of dying.   
  
He wasn't good with words. Or feelings. Cloud struggled with social cues at the best of times, and conversations with dying people were a whole new level of awkward. (He thought he'd done okay with Wedge, who seemed happy enough Cloud remembered his name. Cloud wasn't going to tell him he'd guessed; he often had a hard time remembering which was Biggs and which was Wedge. Barret he remembered with very little trouble, probably because Barret was both loud and annoying and always right _there_ , in his face. Tifa was – well, _Tifa_ , and Jessie was the only other girl, which made it easier.)  
  
He stopped when he reached her. _I need to say something. I can't just keep going up without saying anything. That would be... wrong._  
  
“Cloud... I'm glad... I could talk with you one last time.”  
  
 _What do I say?_ he thought blankly. “Is that so?”  
  
"Ha... cool... as usual... ex-SOLDIER. Always... I liked that... in you..."  
  
 _Cool?_ That was _cool?_ Once again, Cloud thought how very little he understood girls. Or women; given Jessie's age, calling her a girl seemed a bit.. off. He thought she was probably a bit older than him, but he had figured out that asking a female her age was a big no-no. It was one of the few things he was sure of.  
  
She seemed to be losing consciousness, and things were kind of urgent, so Cloud thought he could probably safely proceed without being a total asshole. Probably. Tifa followed, anyway.  
  
It was a few levels further up that something finally clicked. It was the memory of breaking into Reactor No. 5, and Jessie apologising for the trouble with the IDs on the train, words that made little sense to him at the time. _"I'm sorry. The ID scan problem on the train was all my fault. I made your ID card special... So that's why it happened. I put my heart into making it. But I failed."  
_  
Cloud stopped dead on the stairs, so fast that he almost overbalanced and had to wave his arms a little to stop from falling on his face. Thank Odin for SOLDIER reflexes.   
  
“Jessie liked me?” The words tumbled out before he could censor them. This was followed by the inevitable mental question, as he re-examined their previous interactions looking for some sign of how this had happened, of _Why?_  
  
“Cloud? Why did you stop?” Tifa asked from behind him. At least she didn't seem to have heard what he'd said.  There was another burst of gunfire from above, as if to remind him other things were kind of urgent right now. Cloud started climbing again.  
  
 _Is that so?_ The words repeated in his head like an accusation, ringing out to the rhythm of his feet on metal steps. He'd though it bad enough that it was the first thing to pop out of his mouth before; now he knew that Jessie liked him that way, it was even worse. After all, she'd been _dying_.  
  
Cloud was pretty sure being relieved somebody had died so that you could avoid future awkward conversations with them was a bad thing, but as long as nobody else figured it out, he would live with it.


End file.
